78 research outputs found

    Unified Theory of Relativistic Identification of Information in a Systems Age: Proposed Convergence of Unique Identification with Syntax and Semantics through Internet Protocol version 6

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    Unique identification of objects are helpful to the decision making process in many domains. Decisions, however, are often based on information that takes into account multiple factors. Physical objects and their unique identification may be one of many factors. In real-world scenarios, increasingly decisions are based on collective information gathered from multiple sources (or systems) and then combined to a higher level domain that may trigger a decision or action. Currently, we do not have a globally unique mechanism to identify information derived from data originating from objects and processes. Unique identification of information, hence, is an open question. In addition, information, to be of value, must be related to the context of the process. In general, contextual information is of greater relevance in the decision making process or in decision support systems. In this working paper, I shall refer to such information as decisionable information. The suggestion here is to utilize the vast potential of internet protocol version six (IPv6) to uniquely identify not only objects and processes but also relationships (semantics) and interfaces (sensors). Convergence of identification of diverse entities using the globally agreed structure of IPv6 offers the potential to identify 3.4x10[subscript 38] instances based on the fact that the 128-bit IPv6 structure can support 3.4x10[subscript 38] unique addresses. It is not necessary that all instances must be connected to the internet or routed or transmitted simply because an IP addressing scheme is suggested. This is a means for identification that will be globally unique and offers the potential to be connected or routed via the internet. In this working paper, scenarios offer [1] new revenue potential from data routing (P2P traffic track and trace) for telecommunication industries, [2] potential for use in healthcare and biomedical community, [3] scope of use in the semantic web structure by transitioning URIs used in RDF, [4] applications involving thousands of mobile ad hoc sensors (MANET) that demand dynamic adaptive auto-reconfiguration. This paper presents a confluence of ideas

    Modular Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Control Framework with Integrated Payloads

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    Small unmanned aircraft are being used in an increasing number of applications ranging from emergency response to parcel delivery. Many of these applications are benefited when employed as a multiple-vehicle operation. Such operations often require tight cooperation between heterogeneous vehicles and often depend on integration with sensors and payloads. Multi-agent control algorithms can be implemented to control such systems but often require the development of an underlying vehicle communications framework in addition to a sensors and payloads communications framework. This thesis presents a single unified modular framework, named Clark, and supports heterogeneous multi-agent control and sensor/payload integration. Clark provides a wireless network between agents without relying on pre-existing communications infrastructure, and provides software interfaces for connecting to a variety of payloads. This thesis first reviews small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS), multi-agent control, multi-agent control testbeds, and wireless networking technologies used on SUAS. Systems engineering is then employed to develop an Identified Need, Concept of Operations (ConOps), and requirements. All Defined, Derived, and Design Requirements are explained and justified. Some requirements are highlighted to demonstrate key features of the Clark framework. The software architecture is explained in detail in a top-down approach. Hardware is selected for prototyping and shown to meet the requirements. Bench tests, ground tests, and flight tests are conducted to verify the framework’s ability to communicate between agents and affect control. Ground testing includes a multi-agent cooperative mission while flight testing features two and three agent missions. Test results are presented and demonstrate the candidacy of Clark as a modular heterogeneous multi-agent control framework with integrated payloads

    INCORPORATING RADIO FREQUENCY MESH NETWORKS TO LINK LIVE, VIRTUAL, CONSTRUCTIVE TRAINING

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    Given the importance of modeling and simulation (M&S) for creating realistic training environments and employing or developing tactical systems for warfighters, the Department of Defense is turning toward live, virtual, constructive (LVC) simulations as a means to prepare and equip our military for the next war. M&S offers a unique competency for modeling emergent enemy behaviors in constructive simulations on virtual battlefields across the globe. Transferring these dynamic tactical actions to live command and control (C2) systems used during training can create decision-making opportunities for distributed units to react to and act upon. The research conducted in this thesis assessed, developed, and implemented an appropriate LVC environment that can be used in training for tactical convoy operations in the Marine Corps. We developed a robust mesh network connected to a personal computer running a constructive simulation to create dynamic tracks on handheld, Android-based C2 systems. Using low-bandwidth radios to create the network, we were able to create a rich, tactically realistic training environment while minimally increasing the combat load of our Marines. The system we created has the same functionality of the blue force tracker (BFT). Because the BFT is no longer funded, we recommend the LVC solution we created for this thesis as a potential replacement with embedded training capabilities.Captain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. distribution is unlimite

    Management system for Unmanned Aircraft Systems teams

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    This thesis investigates new schemes to improve the operability of heterogeneous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) teams through the exploitation of inter-vehicular communications. Releasing ground links from unnecessary data exchanges saves resources (power, bandwidth, etc) and alleviates the inherent scalability problem resulting from the increase in the number of UAS to be controlled simultaneously. In first place, a framework to classify UAS according to their level of autonomy is presented along with efficient methodologies to assess the autonomy level of either individual or multiple UAS. An architecture based on an aerial Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is proposed for the management of the data exchange among all the vehicles in the team. A performance evaluation of the two most relevant MANET approaches for path discovery (namely, reactive and proactive) has been carried out by means of simulation of two well-known routing protocols: Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Destination Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV). Several network configurations are generated to emulate different possible contingencies that might occur in real UAS team operations. Network topology evolution, vehicle flight dynamics and data traffic patterns are considered as input parameters to the simulation model. The analysis of the system behaviour for each possible network configuration is used to evaluate the appropriateness of both approaches in different mission scenarios. Alternative network solutions based on Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) for situations of intermittent connectivity and network partitioning are outlined. Finally, an assessment of the simulation results is presented along with a discussion about further research challenges

    Compilation of thesis abstracts, June 2007

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    NPS Class of June 2007This quarter’s Compilation of Abstracts summarizes cutting-edge, security-related research conducted by NPS students and presented as theses, dissertations, and capstone reports. Each expands knowledge in its field.http://archive.org/details/compilationofsis109452750

    Routing and Mobility on IPv6 over LoWPAN

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    The IoT means a world-wide network of interconnected objects based on standard communication protocols. An object in this context is a quotidian physical device augmented with sensing/actuating, processing, storing and communication capabilities. These objects must be able to interact with the surrounding environment where they are placed and to cooperate with neighbouring objects in order to accomplish a common objective. The IoT objects have also the capabilities of converting the sensed data into automated instructions and communicating them to other objects through the communication networks, avoiding the human intervention in several tasks. Most of IoT deployments are based on small devices with restricted computational resources and energy constraints. For this reason, initially the scientific community did not consider the use of IP protocol suite in this scenarios because there was the perception that it was too heavy to the available resources on such devices. Meanwhile, the scientific community and the industry started to rethink about the use of IP protocol suite in all IoT devices and now it is considered as the solution to provide connectivity between the IoT devices, independently of the Layer 2 protocol in use, and to connect them to the Internet. Despite the use of IP suite protocol in all devices and the amount of solutions proposed, many open issues remain unsolved in order to reach a seamless integration between the IoT and the Internet and to provide the conditions to IoT service widespread. This thesis addressed the challenges associated with the interconnectivity between the Internet and the IoT devices and with the security aspects of the IoT. In the interconnectivity between the IoT devices and the Internet the problem is how to provide valuable information to the Internet connected devices, independently of the supported IP protocol version, without being necessary accessed directly to the IoT nodes. In order to solve this problem, solutions based on Representational state transfer (REST) web services and IPv4 to IPv6 dual stack transition mechanism were proposed and evaluated. The REST web service and the transition mechanism runs only at the border router without penalizing the IoT constrained devices. The mitigation of the effects of internal and external security attacks minimizing the overhead imposed on the IoT devices is the security challenge addressed in this thesis. Three different solutions were proposed. The first is a mechanism to prevent remotely initiated transport level Denial of Service attacks that avoids the use of inefficient and hard to manage traditional firewalls. It is based on filtering at the border router the traffic received from the Internet and destined to the IoT network according to the conditions announced by each IoT device. The second is a network access security framework that can be used to control the nodes that have access to the network, based on administrative approval, and to enforce security compliance to the authorized nodes. The third is a network admission control framework that prevents IoT unauthorized nodes to communicate with IoT authorized nodes or with the Internet, which drastically reduces the number of possible security attacks. The network admission control was also exploited as a management mechanism as it can be used to manage the network size in terms of number of nodes, making the network more manageable, increasing its reliability and extending its lifetime.A IoT (Internet of Things) tem suscitado o interesse tanto da comunidade académica como da indústria, uma vez que os campos de aplicação são inúmeros assim como os potenciais ganhos que podem ser obtidos através do uso deste tipo de tecnologia. A IoT significa uma rede global de objetos ligados entre si através de uma rede de comunicações baseada em protocolos standard. Neste contexto, um objeto é um objeto físico do dia a dia ao qual foi adicionada a capacidade de medir e de atuar sobre variáveis físicas, de processar e armazenar dados e de comunicar. Estes objetos têm a capacidade de interagir com o meio ambiente envolvente e de cooperar com outros objetos vizinhos de forma a atingirem um objetivo comum. Estes objetos também têm a capacidade de converter os dados lidos em instruções e de as comunicar a outros objetos através da rede de comunicações, evitando desta forma a intervenção humana em diversas tarefas. A maior parte das concretizações de sistemas IoT são baseados em pequenos dispositivos autónomos com restrições ao nível dos recursos computacionais e de retenção de energia. Por esta razão, inicialmente a comunidade científica não considerou adequado o uso da pilha protocolar IP neste tipo de dispositivos, uma vez que havia a perceção de que era muito pesada para os recursos computacionais disponíveis. Entretanto, a comunidade científica e a indústria retomaram a discussão acerca dos benefícios do uso da pilha protocolar em todos os dispositivos da IoT e atualmente é considerada a solução para estabelecer a conetividade entre os dispositivos IoT independentemente do protocolo da camada dois em uso e para os ligar à Internet. Apesar do uso da pilha protocolar IP em todos os dispositivos e da quantidade de soluções propostas, são vários os problemas por resolver no que concerne à integração contínua e sem interrupções da IoT na Internet e de criar as condições para a adoção generalizada deste tipo de tecnologias. Esta tese versa sobre os desafios associados à integração da IoT na Internet e dos aspetos de segurança da IoT. Relativamente à integração da IoT na Internet o problema é como fornecer informação válida aos dispositivos ligados à Internet, independentemente da versão do protocolo IP em uso, evitando o acesso direto aos dispositivos IoT. Para a resolução deste problema foram propostas e avaliadas soluções baseadas em web services REST e em mecanismos de transição IPv4 para IPv6 do tipo pilha dupla (dual stack). O web service e o mecanismo de transição são suportados apenas no router de fronteira, sem penalizar os dispositivos IoT. No que concerne à segurança, o problema é mitigar os efeitos dos ataques de segurança internos e externos iniciados local e remotamente. Foram propostas três soluções diferentes, a primeira é um mecanismo que minimiza os efeitos dos ataques de negação de serviço com origem na Internet e que evita o uso de mecanismos de firewalls ineficientes e de gestão complexa. Este mecanismo filtra no router de fronteira o tráfego com origem na Internet é destinado à IoT de acordo com as condições anunciadas por cada um dos dispositivos IoT da rede. A segunda solução, é uma framework de network admission control que controla quais os dispositivos que podem aceder à rede com base na autorização administrativa e que aplica políticas de conformidade relativas à segurança aos dispositivos autorizados. A terceira é um mecanismo de network admission control para redes 6LoWPAN que evita que dispositivos não autorizados comuniquem com outros dispositivos legítimos e com a Internet o que reduz drasticamente o número de ataques à segurança. Este mecanismo também foi explorado como um mecanismo de gestão uma vez que pode ser utilizado a dimensão da rede quanto ao número de dispositivos, tornando-a mais fácil de gerir e aumentando a sua fiabilidade e o seu tempo de vida

    Context Aware Computing for The Internet of Things: A Survey

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    As we are moving towards the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of sensors deployed around the world is growing at a rapid pace. Market research has shown a significant growth of sensor deployments over the past decade and has predicted a significant increment of the growth rate in the future. These sensors continuously generate enormous amounts of data. However, in order to add value to raw sensor data we need to understand it. Collection, modelling, reasoning, and distribution of context in relation to sensor data plays critical role in this challenge. Context-aware computing has proven to be successful in understanding sensor data. In this paper, we survey context awareness from an IoT perspective. We present the necessary background by introducing the IoT paradigm and context-aware fundamentals at the beginning. Then we provide an in-depth analysis of context life cycle. We evaluate a subset of projects (50) which represent the majority of research and commercial solutions proposed in the field of context-aware computing conducted over the last decade (2001-2011) based on our own taxonomy. Finally, based on our evaluation, we highlight the lessons to be learnt from the past and some possible directions for future research. The survey addresses a broad range of techniques, methods, models, functionalities, systems, applications, and middleware solutions related to context awareness and IoT. Our goal is not only to analyse, compare and consolidate past research work but also to appreciate their findings and discuss their applicability towards the IoT.Comment: IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials Journal, 201

    Securing Data Dissemination in Vehicular ad hoc Networks

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    Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are a subclass of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) in which the mobile nodes are vehicles; these vehicles are autonomous systems connected by wireless communication on a peer-to-peer basis. They are self-organized, self-configured and self-controlled infrastructure-less networks. This kind of network has the advantage of being able to be set-up and deployed anywhere and anytime because it has no infrastructure set-up and no central administration. Distributing information between these vehicles over long ranges in such networks, however, is a very challenging task, since sharing information always has a risk attached to it especially when the information is confidential. The disclosure of such information to anyone else other than the intended parties could be extremely damaging, particularly in military applications where controlling the dissemination of messages is essential. This thesis therefore provides a review of the issue of security in VANET and MANET; it also surveys existing solutions for dissemination control. It highlights a particular area not adequately addressed until now: controlling information flow in VANETs. This thesis contributes a policy-based framework to control the dissemination of messages communicated between nodes in order to ensure that message remains confidential not only during transmission, but also after it has been communicated to another peer, and to keep the message contents private to an originator-defined subset of nodes in the VANET. This thesis presents a novel framework to control data dissemination in vehicle ad hoc networks in which policies are attached to messages as they are sent between peers. This is done by automatically attaching policies along with messages to specify how the information can be used by the receiver, so as to prevent disclosure of the messages other than consistent with the requirements of the originator. These requirements are represented as a set of policy rules that explicitly instructs recipients how the information contained in messages can be disseminated to other nodes in order to avoid unintended disclosure. This thesis describes the data dissemination policy language used in this work; and further describes the policy rules in order to be a suitable and understandable language for the framework to ensure the confidentiality requirement of the originator. This thesis also contributes a policy conflict resolution that allows the originator to be asked for up-to-date policies and preferences. The framework was evaluated using the Network Simulator (NS-2) to provide and check whether the privacy and confidentiality of the originators’ messages were met. A policy-based agent protocol and a new packet structure were implemented in this work to manage and enforce the policies attached to packets at every node in the VANET. Some case studies are presented in this thesis to show how data dissemination can be controlled based on the policy of the originator. The results of these case studies show the feasibility of our research to control the data dissemination between nodes in VANETs. NS-2 is also used to test the performance of the proposed policy-based agent protocol and demonstrate its effectiveness using various network performance metrics (average delay and overhead)

    Connectivity Optimization in Robotic Networks

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    La collaboration entre multiple appareils électroniques (e.g. smartphones, ordinateurs, robots, senseurs et routeurs) est une tendance qui suscite un vif intérêt tant ses applications semblent prometteuses. Les maisons autonomes ou villes intelligentes figurent parmi la prodigieuse variété d’exemples. La communication entre appareils est une des clés du succès de leur coopération. Sans un bon système de communication, les appareils se retrouvent vite incapables d’échanger l’information nécessaire à la prise de décision. Pour garantir une bonne communication, il faut un réseau solide sur lequel elle puisse reposer. Nous pourrions envisager une organisation centralisée, puisqu’elles sont si répandues. Nos téléphones portables communiquent grâce à des antennes-relais ; et nous naviguons sur l’internet grâce à des routeurs. Dans un réseau centralisé, si un noeud principal, tel qu’une antenne ou un routeur, est défaillant, la capacité à communiquer en est dramatiquement diminuée. Or, certaines collaborations entre appareils interviennent, parfois, dans des situations où les infrastructures classiques ne sont pas accessibles. C’est le cas pour les opérations de sauvetages, où les moyens de communications classiques ont pu être endommagés à la suite d’un sinistre. D’autres organisations sont alors plus judicieuses. Dans les réseaux ad hoc, par exemple, il n’existe pas de noeud central, car chaque appareil peut servir au transit de l’information. Cette dissertation s’intéresse à la mise en place de réseaux ad hoc et mobiles entre smartphones et drones. Elle s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un partenariat, entre Humanitas Solutions et l’École Polytechnique de Montréal, qui vise à établir un moyen de communication basé sur ces appareils, pour connecter victimes et premiers secours lors d’opérations de sauvetages. Pour mener à bien ce projet, nous devons permettre aux appareils électroniques de communiquer sans recourir à quelconque infrastructure. Pour relayer l’information, nous devons également maintenir les drones connectés au-dessus de la zone sinistrée.----------ABSTRACT: Because of their promising applications, the interest for machine-to-machine interaction has soared (e.g. between smartphones, laptops, robots, sensors, or routers). Autonomous homes and smart cities are just two examples among the many. Without a good communication system, devices are unable to share relevant information and take effective decisions. Thus, inter-device communication is key for successful cooperations. To guarantee suitable communication, devices need to rely on a robust network. One might think of classical centralized network architecture since it is so common – antennae relay our smartphone communications, and routers provide us with an Internet connection at home. However, this architecture is not adequate for every application. When a central node (e.g. an antenna or a router) fails, it can cripple all the network. Moreover, fixed infrastructure is not always available, which is detrimental for applications like search and rescue operations. Hence, other network designs can be more suitable, like ad hoc networks, where there is no central node and every device can route information. This work aims at establishing mobile ad hoc networks between multiple devices for search and rescue operations. This thesis is framed by a partnership between Humanitas Solutions and École Polytechnique de Montréal, whose goal is to relay information between victims and first responders by the use of smartphones and flying robots (i.e. drones). For this purpose, we have to enable infrastructureless communications between devices and maintain drones connected over the disaster area
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